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March and more waiting ...

I would like to say that I am happy for all of those who have already gotten acceptances. I don't begrudge you at all, I am more jealous then anything. I, like so many other people like cokohlik, in her recent blog post, am in that wonderful/horrible land of limbo. I am still at one rejection, and four unknowns out of the schools that I applied to. And as more time goes on the more I feel that I will be rejected. And that I wish that some of the other schools were as quick to pull the band-aid off as quick as the first school. But at this point they are still giving me hope. What I really want to know is, how likely is it to get into grad school at this point. Does anybody know of cases of people getting into a grad school at a late point in their application season?

But right now I am really wanting to have my hope. My birthday is in less then a week, and part of me is hoping for something by then. Just because it would help passing another year. But I know that at least with one of the schools, they expect the group of first offers to get back to them by the 15th of this month. I get this feeling that if they offer me anything it will be after this date. It's probably something with the rest of the schools.

At this point, it looks like I am also getting my first paper published soon. But I don't think i will be soon enough to send it as an attachment to my application for this cycle. Oh well.

All this waiting is upsetting. Especially since one of my letter writers is one of my profs for a grad class that I am taking this semester. He is also hoping to hear news from me soon.

I also wonder if the theory floating around the GC that applications are taking longer to review because of the new GRE scoring system is accurate... Maybe that means that all hope is not yet lost for us.

I know I say this a lot, but it can't hurt to say it again... March 2nd feels so late in the game, that how else are we supposed to think that we don't have rejections coming to us? Even though only a few of the PhD programs I've applied to have notified (sporadically), I still get the feeling that all their acceptances have been sent out and they're just waiting to send out the rejections. I don't know. The process sucks.

I got accepted last year really late in the game (mid-March) by a school that usually does interviews but didn't interview me. That's SUPER weird and I decided not to go to that school because they didn't offer me funding (which is why they notified me so late, probably). I waited it out another year and am off to a great university with full funding now. I'm waiting on a few more schools but I made my decisions. Maybe they wait this long for the first batch of students to accept/not accept so they can offer admission to another round. I don't think you should feel hopeless. Good luck and happy birthday!

People are right that there is still a chance until all of the actual decisions come in. And if nothing else, I can always try again in the fall. After all, other people have had better luck the second time around. All I would have to do is to try to improve my application as much as possible in the months before the next cycle. I think that it should be said that people should just remember that there is always a chance as long as you are willing to stick it out and do what is necessary.

People are right that there is still a chance until all of the actual decisions come in. And if nothing else, I can always try again in the fall. After all, other people have had better luck the second time around. All I would have to do is to try to improve my application as much as possible in the months before the next cycle. I think that it should be said that people should just remember that there is always a chance as long as you are willing to stick it out and do what is necessary.

+1 You still have a chance until they tell you no, and if they do, just try again!

I have gotten two inquiries to interview in the last two weeks. Last year I had a two major (biomedical science) programs that I had written off completely set up interviews for the end of march and my final interveiw last year believe it or not was on april 14th! Both of these schools accepted me, but a great opportunity came along so I postponed for a year. However, I would say that in general if you have not heard anything from them by march 9th your chances are quite low, but its not impossible!

Like me, has anyone been told that their acceptance deadline is April 13 instead of April 15? Note that April 15 is on a Sunday this year. So if anyone were to wait until the next business day to accept an offer of admission, that would be April 16, one day past the deadline. Still, I don't like the idea of having to commit on April 13 since I am on a waiting list at another university. Advice?

my advice would be to wait until the end of march, if you dont hear anything take your best offer, I was on a wait list last year and declined 5 offers and the program did not inform me until june 15th that I was not accepted. The way I see it is that if they put you on a wait list then they really did'nt want you in the first place you were just their plan B....

Just curious, but is it frowned upon to politely inquire about the status of an application? It seems reasonable to me, especially if you haven't heard anything by the second week of March, considering that if accepted you would need time to visit. It would also be very helpful to know if you are waitlisted too. Also, if I were rejected, I would want to know sooner rather than later so I could focus on other offers or plans. I'm doing this now with one of my top choices, since I haven't heard a peep and there was already a wave of rejections.

On the other hand, and to offer some hope, I have seen in past years' profiles people who have been waitlisted/accepted well into April. I wonder too if there is some truth to the idea that some programs wait to hear back from their first offers before officially waitlisting/accepting/rejecting others; perhaps this is to keep their acceptances to the exact number needed instead of expecting that a certain fraction will decline?

I think it is ok to contact a program if you have not heard from them in months, I just contacted one such program today.

If you are worried about being veiwed as impatient or nosey, the best way to contact them in my opinion is to update department regarding your recent accompishments/success (if you have any). For example, I just submitted a manuscript for publication last week so I emailed the department letting them know I am still interested in the program and attached a copy of my manuscript. You can also do this if you have new grades, get a new research position (or start a new research project), or this is the time of year when conferences are accepting abstracts so prepare something to submit to a conference (if you have ongoing research talk to your advisor/mentor and find a conference to submit some research findings to, forward the abstract to the committee).

This helps show that you are still interested in the program as well as provides an opportunity to demonstrate you continuing intellectual productivity.

Lots of programs don't inform until End March. I'm in the same place as you actually. Applied to 6 schools and haven't heard from any. Doesn't mean that we're getting rejected. Just means that our admissions decisions are coming with the next batch, Trust me. There are loads of us

Lots of programs don't inform until End March. I'm in the same place as you actually. Applied to 6 schools and haven't heard from any. Doesn't mean that we're getting rejected. Just means that our admissions decisions are coming with the next batch, Trust me. There are loads of us

I feel that wit the amount of amazingly great applicants on GC, people always forget there are some slightly less great people like us who are still waiting to hear from some or all of our schools. The wait doesn't seem any less stressful though.

I contacted two of my schools yesterday and guess what they are saying that only 15% of the decision have been made.. rest 85% coming soon...Their deadlines were in mid December and 1st november respectively....So chill out guys and just pray..

I saw that you are in the geosciences, I don't know where all you applied to (sorry if I missed it listed somewhere) but I wouldn't give up all hope yet. I am also in the geosciences (although I am on the geophysics side of things) and I haven't heard back from any of my schools I have applied to yet with an answer. As of earlier this week when I called none of them had sent out any offers yet and hoped to know by the end of the month. Perhaps it is just a late season for them this year? I understand what you mean about losing hope though. What was such great confidence when I initially applied, has dwindled down a road of second-guessing and self-doubt to the state I have reached now. You aren't alone and who knows maybe your schools haven't made any decisions yet. You can always call!

Even I am in same boat. I am really very curious to know about my status of my application, and today march 28th..still status is under review.
I think my application is on rejection list. But am not sure about to contact department or not..to know about my status of applicaiton. Is it right time to call them or should I wait?

I saw that you are in the geosciences, I don't know where all you applied to (sorry if I missed it listed somewhere) but I wouldn't give up all hope yet. I am also in the geosciences (although I am on the geophysics side of things) and I haven't heard back from any of my schools I have applied to yet with an answer. As of earlier this week when I called none of them had sent out any offers yet and hoped to know by the end of the month. Perhaps it is just a late season for them this year? I understand what you mean about losing hope though. What was such great confidence when I initially applied, has dwindled down a road of second-guessing and self-doubt to the state I have reached now. You aren't alone and who knows maybe your schools haven't made any decisions yet. You can always call!

Even I am in same boat. I am really very curious to know about my status of my application, and today march 28th..still status is under review. I think my application is on rejection list. But am not sure about to contact department or not..to know about my status of applicaiton. Is it right time to call them or should I wait?

To both of you, I think this week is going to be the week that I contact them. There also seem to be a lot of people in this boat, and I am wondering if this is something that is common.